Hobbiton and that bloody Hobbit Motel

We've been so excited about going to the Hobbiton film set and today, after white water rafting we finally made it!

The Hobbiton village film set is just outside of Matamata, west of Rotorua. The set was used for the filming of Hobbiton for the Lord of The Rings trilogy and then partly dismantled. Even then people used to come to visit the remnants of the set. Peter Jackson then wanted to rebuild it for The Hobbit and the farm's owners agreed to it on the condition that they rebuilt it with durable materials so that after filming was completed, they could open a proper tour.

It's really very cool. The site was chosen because of its rolling hills and also because it had a big tree - The Party Tree, right next to a lake, as described in the Fellowship of the Ring.

You learn loads of bits of trivia, like how they built human size hobbit holes and small ones, and filmed Gandalf walking past the small ones so that when they filmed the hobbits in front of the human size ones, in your mind they too are small, as are the hobbits!

After walking around Hobbiton and visiting Bag End, you go to the Green Dragon pub for a drink!

After the awesome tour we were so excited about staying at the Hobbit Motel in Waitomo. We booked it a couple of weeks ago and have been singing "Hobbit Motel, Hotel, Holiday Inn..." ever since. But when we got there tonight they had messed up our booking and given our room to someone else. Apparently that's what happens when your booking system is two notebooks. Bar Stewards! They said we can stay tomorrow night but it's not worth another night in Waitomo, where there is nothing to do except the black water rafting trip. So, now our belated Valentine's treat is the Kiwi Packer hotel. Hobbit Motel, I hate you right now!